Gisborne firefighters have been called out to deal with cats in trees and other animals in difficult spots but a guinea pig inside a computer printer was a first.
Yesterday officers spent about half an hour freeing the creature.
Senior Station Officer Pat Hogan said a woman arrived at the fire station carrying a printer with the guinea pig inside it.
"It wasn't injured or anything - it had just wriggled inside and got stuck," he said.
"We had to take the case off to get it out but when we started cutting the back off the printer it just shot out all by itself. The noise must have frightened it," Mr Hogan said.
It was one of the most unusual requests the station had ever had.
The guinea pig was expected to make a full recovery.
